US Threatens Iran with Unprecedented Economic Isolation

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has threatened to place Iran under a level of economic isolation ‘never before witnessed by the world’. Bessent said that Washington’s new measures against Tehran would be announced further next week. ‘It will be a combination of economic isolation, the likes of which the world has never seen before,’ Bessent told the conservative US television network Newsmax, as reported by AFP on Friday (14/8/2026). ‘A sustained blockade of the Strait of Hormuz… will prevent anything from entering or leaving Iranian ports,’ he stressed. ‘Stay tuned for further announcements next week,’ Bessent added in his statement. The US Treasury Secretary also outlined a two-track approach encompassing financial pressure and a physical blockade of those ports. Vice President JD Vance previously stated that the top US priority in the conflict with Iran is to lower oil and petrol prices for the American people. Meanwhile, preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Vance said, now ranks second. This tougher stance contrasts with Bessent’s remarks on 4 August, when he told CNBC that a deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could be reached within days. Those comments spurred a rally on Wall Street and a decline in oil prices. In July, the US Treasury Department expanded sanctions targeting Iranian shipping and financial networks, following Tehran’s renewed attacks on international vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.